Verismo
by pseudodemi
Summary: Bad breakups, confessions, growing friendships and relationships, life. They're all in their final year of high school, hopefully they'll be able to overcome the obstacles that their everyday lives have thrown at them. My original summery capped the character limit, enjoy this badly condensed version.


Hello readers! Demi here. I am extremely new to the writing scene so please bear with me.

A lot of what will be written here is based on personal experiences in some way, shape, or form and as the chapters go on, it will probably become a lot darker compared to the lighthearted feel I'm trying to achieve in the first few chapters.

I'm bantering, I apologize.

As I was saying, I'm not extremely good with writing so there will no doubt be some awkward spacing between paragraphs and whatnot as well as spelling and grammar mistakes. (I'm still learning, okay? This a process people)

I unfortunately can't give a set timeline for how frequently this will updated since this entire work literally comes to me in phases and I'm currently working on multiple chapters all at once. Whenever I think of a scene that needs to be included in this plot, I immediately type it out on my phone so I don't forget about later on. There may be times when I upload multiple chapters in one week and that's honestly because I feel the need to pump out as much creativity as a I can all at once while it's still there otherwise it'll go away and I'll procrastinate. (Story of my fucking life.)

I obviously don't own any part of Kingdom Hearts or the characters, but I do have to take ownership for the plot of this particular story, even if no one ends up reading it.

I really hope you all enjoy this first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Personal side note: I lost my original file for the first chapter so this was copied and pasted from my AO3 account (my main account). I decided to branch out to a few more platforms to see how people respond to this work so please, if anything is askew, please, please, PLEASE inform me and I will try my best to fix it as soon as possible. I unfortunately had a really bad experience the last time I tried to upload this chapter. Once uploaded, it somehow became completely illegible and someone told me to kill myself! The love here is overwhelming! Anyway, like I said, please inform me if anything like this happens so I can fix it instead of being immature about it and sending hatful personal messages.

-Demi

Chapter One - Twenty Minutes

Senior year. One more year of this fucking hell hole and Roxas Strife would be out this godforsaken place known as Destiny District High School. He'd only moved here a few weeks ago and already the school year was off to a bad start. Being a new student, he missed the first few days of school in order to get all of his paperwork together, meet with some of the faculty, and get settled in before attending his classes. He had no friends and no one to talk to except for his friend Sora, who he'd known since he was an infant.

Roxas couldn't even remember when it was they had originally met, that's how long they'd known each other. Needless to say, Sora was quite a handful to deal with at the best of times, with his overflowing bubbly and chipper personality and an attitude so energetic and lively that it seemed to radiate into his hair, it was no wonder that everyone in the school adored him and could care less about his more than obvious sexual preferences. They loved him, and he loved them back just as easily.

Roxas on the other hand, was quite the opposite in comparison. Sure, he used to have a solid group of friends back at his old high school Twilight Town High, but that all quickly changed on the last day of his grade eleven year, when Sora's older brother decided to drop off the face of the earth and leave Roxas wondering what he had done wrong to deserve being completely deserted.

Sora's brother had originally moved to Twilight Town in order to finish his victory lap. He had failed a few of his classes and couldn't graduate the previous year. It had ended up with the two of them falling into a whirlwind romance that lasted for just over five months. Roxas had never opened himself that much to someone before in his life, not even his closest friends. So, when June came along and Sora's brother graduated, Roxas thought for sure that they'd still keep in contact with each other even after the new graduate went off to college only a few kilometers away from Twilight Town High, but instead, he up and all but completely disappeared with nothing but a note saying "I'm sorry, but I can't do this anymore. It's over."

Roxas had tried countless times to contact him but he never answered any texts or calls and after spending the entire summer being completely devastated and depressed in his room, refusing to go out or talk to any of his friends, his parents decided to move back to his childhood home of Destiny Islands, which was all sun and beach instead of a quite-yet-busy little town that he used to call home.

Their excuse had been work-related and being closer to family friends but Roxas knew better. It was his parents way of giving Roxas a somewhat fresh start at his last year of high school. Sora's brother rarely visited home so it was really the perfect opportunity.

"Why did I get the overly concerned parents?", He mumbled to himself as he made his way to his new assigned locker. "You just had to go and fuck up the perfect little life you had going and now you look where you ar-"

His own personal mumbled banter was quickly interrupted by none other than the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Sora nearly screaming his name from down the hall. Seriously, did this guy even know how loud he was being? His yell certainly attracted enough stares, that's for sure.

"ROXAS!" Sora said once again, rather loudly. This time right beside his ear.

Roxas groaned, then said quietly, "I'm right here, Sora. You don't have to yell."

"Yeah, okay, whatever. ANYWAY, I know you said you had a few community hours left that you needed to finish and lucky for you, I just so happen to know of a way you can get the-"

Roxas cut him off abruptly. "I don't _need_ them, Sora. They'd just be nice to have on my transcript, that's all."

Sora looked at him blankly for a split second, then continued on and said, "Well, regardless, you can join peer tutoring during your spare period to get the hours. I already told them you might show up so if your interested, it's in room 138. That's in the new wing of the school." Sora smiled brightly at Roxas. "Want me to show you?"

"I-" Roxas started, what was he about to get himself into? "Sure. How about during lunch? Since my spare is directly after that."

Sora smiled again before saying, "Lucky bastard! I wish I had my lunch and spare back-to-back. But yeah, sure, sounds great! I'll meet you in caf. for lunch!"  
After he said those last words, he took off just as quickly as he came.

 _'I didn't even get a chance to ask where my first class is...'_

Twenty minutes. That's how late Roxas was to his first class. It took asking two (giggling) apparently freshman students and a trip to the office before he was able to find the room for his math class. Ah yes, nothing beats waking up and going to school only to sit on your ass for seventy-five minutes and learn about numbers. Needless to say, the teacher wasn't very impressed about him showing up late, regardless of the late slip given to him by the attendance office. Apparently the class hadn't even fully started yet either, judging by the lack of students not doing work and instead were quietly having conversations with each other.

The teacher, who refused to be called by her last name, introduced herself as Ms. Tifa before instructing Roxas as to where he should sit, giving him the course syllabus in the process.

"I'm assuming you're the person Sora keeps rambling on about?" a voice to his right said.  
When Roxas looked up, it took him a moment to realize who was talking to him; a blue-slate haired boy wearing black skinny jeans and band shirt paired with a plain grey cardigan. He had quite an untidy fringe and currently had his face buried in a book with only his one eye visible over the rim that was staring directly at Roxas.

"Uhm, yeah I am. How'd you guess?" Roxas asked nervously, a bit startled by being talked to by someone in the first place.

The blue-slate haired boy offered a small smirk, despite his most of his face being covered, while he turned back to his book, still watching Roxas from his peripheral and said, "his description of his 'most dearest long-lost friend', his words, not mine, is uncanny."

Roxas stared back a bit cluelessly before the boy looked over once again and gave him an eye-roll before closing his book and fully turning towards Roxas to continue what he was saying.

"I'm joking. I didn't have to guess because it's all anyone has been talking about since yesterday morning. 'Spiky blond hair, blue eyes and _just_ as adorable as our very own ray of sunshine known as Sora.'" He said the last parts with air quotations. "It was kind of hard _not_ to recognize you just by the way people have been talking about you. Sora, to be quite blunt, doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut and neither does the rest of the student body. The only thing left out about your arrival was your name. Care to introduce yourself?" the boy gave Roxas a neutral stare.

Roxas returned a stare equally as neutral, he found it easier to not show too many emotions when first meeting someone. He sort of liked this guy and his blunt, sassy personality, it reminded him a bit of himself. "I'm Roxas. And you are...?"

"Zexion." the boy gave a small smile. "What class do have next after this?"

"Uh..." Roxas quickly checked his schedule before replying, "intro. to photography."

Zexion gave a small nod. "Want to walk together there? I have a class right next to there."

' _He's a bit strange...'_ ' Roxas thought before saying, "Sure, that'd be great. I still haven't found my way around yet to be honest..."

"I figured as much." Zexion said. He was about to continue their conversation but was interrupted by Ms. Tifa announcing rather loudly that she'd be giving out a worksheet to be completed by the end of class and handed in with absolutely no talking because she had "important teacher business" to attend to. Meaning she was on the classroom phone for the rest of the period talking to one of the Phys. Ed. Teachers.

"We'll continue this conversation after class." Zexion said before turning towards the worksheet they were all given.  
Roxas nodded in reply before turning towards his own.

After first period, Roxas and his newly found companion, Zexion, made their way towards their next class.

"Do you mind if I stop by my locker?" Zexion inquired. "I want to dispose of this vile textbook."

"Yeah, no problem." Roxas replied with a small chuckle. Yup, he definitely liked this guy. "Lead the way."

"Did you have any trouble with the assignment?" Zexion asked boredly as they walked down the hall, holding his textbook in his arms loosely against his chest.

"Personally I don't see why she even bothers with worksheets during the first few weeks, it's boring and we aren't learning anything new."

"I'll agree with you there that it's really boring," Roxas replied. "But to answer your question, no, I didn't have any trouble with it. I've already taken advanced math before so it was all just review for me."

"Same here." Zexion replied. "You should sign up for peer tutoring if you've got the free time. Extra community hours and depending on who you're paired up with, probably another senior student or someone on their victory lap, you can basically just slack off and review the other person's work once they're done, offer help when needed and then spend the rest of the time doing whatever the hell you want. It's what I do and teachers generally don't ever bother to check up on what's happening, they just check you in, leave, and come back near the end to check you out."

"Sounds like you've been doing this for awhile", Roxas said with raised eyebrows.

"Perhaps." Zexion replied with a knowing smirk.

"Too bad Sora already beat you to the punch", Roxas continued. "He went ahead and told whoever in peer tutoring that I was interested in getting extra community hours and might show up today during my spare."

"Let me guess," Zexion said as they started getting closer to his locker. "Fourth spare?"

"How-" Roxas began but was interrupted quickly.

"All senior student either end up with first period spare or fourth period spare. Now, seeing as you already showed up for first period, you obviously don't have a spare first thing in the morning. And this all under the assumption that you actually have enough left-over credits to get a spare in the first place." Zexion said matter-of-factly. "I guess we'll be together for that as well."

"Yeah," Roxas said. "I guess so."

Once arrived at Zexion's locker, Zexion must have struggled to open his locker for at least a solid few minutes before Roxas had offered to help but to no avail.

"Damn thing-" Zexion said around clenched teeth as he tried once again to open his locker after Roxas' failed attempt. "Every fucking day this stupid thing won't ope-"

"Need some help?" a new voice asked as a foot collided with the bottom of Zexion's locker before the door gently swung open as if it were never stuck in the first place. Leaning casually against the set of lockers, was a boy with longish white-silver hair who was at least a head taller, if not a bit more, than Zexion and Roxas. He stood there with a small grin plastered on face which reached his aquamarine coloured eyes.

Zexion gave him a blank stare. "I would've figured it out, you know", he said plainly, but the new face was no longer looking at Zexion but instead staring directly at Roxas.

"Are you the new guy everyone's been talking about?" the stranger asked with the slightest tilt of his head, curiosity evident in his voice. It caused some of his hair to fall into his eyes but he quickly brushed the strands aside, and before Roxas could reply, Zexion quickly interrupted by saying sarcastically, "No, Riku, not at all. How could he _possibly_ be the person everyone's been talking about when he matches the description that everyone's been bantering about _perfectly._ There's absolutely no slight resemblance whatsoever."

"Whoa, Zex," Riku said with eyebrows raised and his hands held up in defense. "Tone down the sass a bit. I know you didn't get the chance to have your morning rant with Demyx today but trust me, it'll be okay once we get through next period and go to lunch."

"Don't test me, Riku." Zexion said seriously before turning to his locker and 'disposed of his vile textbook', as he had previously said he wanted to.

"Oh, for God's sake Zexion," Riku said with a sigh while slinging his right arm around Zexion's shoulders. "Take a damn chill pill already, you'll see him soon enough anyway and then you can rant as much as your stone-cold heart desires."

"Riku, get your fucking hands off of me or I swear on the entirety of my book collection, I _will_ deck you." Zexion said as he stood mid-way through closing his backpack.

"Don't be so fucking melodramatic, Z", Riku said while he turned to Roxas and with his free hand, reached around the front of Zexion, forming it into a fist, and held it out for Roxas to bump. "I'm Riku by the way, if you haven't figured that out already."

Zexion mumbled incoherently as Roxas shrugged and bumped the outstretched fist that was being offered to him with his own. "I'm Ro-"

"ROXAS!" a certain brown spiky-haired someone yelled from down the hall.

"Jesus fucking Christ, not again..." Roxas groaned as Sora got closer.

"Roxas! You found your first class okay, right? Hi, Riku" Sora smiled in the direction of Riku, who gave a 'hey' and a small smile in return, before he turned back to Roxas. "I totally forgot to show you where it was!"

"Again, Sora, I'm right here. You really don't need to yell, and yes, I found my classroom after getting directions from the office." Roxas said with a slight strain of his voice, Sora really was hard to be around sometimes.

"He was late." Zexion interjected.

"You were LATE?!" Sora asked in exasperation. "I'm so sorry I didn't show you where your class was!"

"It's really not a big deal, Sora", Roxas said quietly. "No need to apologize."

Sora looked at his phone and said, "Crap, I needa go. I'll catch up with you at lunch, okay? Bye!", before he took off down the hall once again.

"We should get going too." Zexion said while closing his locker. "We only have a few more minutes before the next classes start."

Roxas and Riku both nodded before following Zexion towards their next classes.

Photography class itself was pretty straight forward, everyone was split into groups of three or four and received a camera for them all to get accustomed to and learn what everything does, such as light exposure, aperture, shutter speed etc. and before they knew it, class was over and they were making their way to lunch.

"So, whereabouts are you from?" Riku asked Roxas as they all walked towards the cafeteria.

"I'm from Twilight Town." Roxas replied with a slight reluctance. He really wasn't in the mood today to discuss _why_ he moved here and hoped Riku wouldn't ask.

He didn't. Instead he just replied with, "Oh, cool. I've heard Sora talk about that place a few times before. He said it was a really nice town."

To his right, Riku heard Zexion trying to suppress a sigh. "What?" he asked Zexion as they walked through the cafeteria doors.

"Hm?" Zexion asked innocently, "oh, I was just thinking that instead of obsessing over him, you should seriously just go and ask him ou-"

"ROXAS!" Sora abruptly interrupted, _yet again_ , the conversation that was taking place as he ran from the table he was sitting at over to where Roxas, Riku, and Zexion had just walked in.

' _Christ, not again...'_ Roxas thought.

"Did you wanna sit with us for lunch?" Sora motioned with his head towards the table where about five other people were already sitting.

"Um..." Roxas started. "Do you mind if I sit with them for lunch today?" Roxas motioned towards Riku and Zexion.

"Okay!" Sora replied with same chipper attitude that he always had as he started to turn away.

Zexion gave Riku a sharp elbow to his side and gave him a stern look that said _'go talk to him now'_.

 _"Ow",_ Riku hissed while he glared at Zexion. But none the less walked towards Sora who had just taken a few steps away from where he just stood talking to Roxas.

"Uhm, h-hey, Sora," Riku said as Sora turned around to hearing his name with eyebrows slightly raised.

"Yeah?" Sora replied.

"Uh, I was just wondering if you got all the notes to..." Riku's voice faded as Roxas and Zexion walked out of earshot towards a table near the window that was currently unoccupied.

"What was all that about?" Roxas asked Zexion as they reached the table.

"What, the whole Riku acting like a fourteen-year-old girl in front of Sora?" he replied as they pulled out the blue plastic chairs from the table and took a seat.

"Well," Roxas started. "I wasn't going to say it quite like that but yeah."

Zexion gave him a measured look, crossing his arms over his chest before saying, "I'm honestly surprised you haven't noticed yet."

Roxas only gave a very confused look in response to him. Zexion sighed as he unfolded his arms and instead placed them on the table, interlacing his delicate (and very callused in some areas, Roxas noticed) fingers together and looked directly into Roxas' eyes.

He said, "Riku's head-over-heels in love with Sora. Or whatever", he finished that last part with a hand gesture. "Maybe 'love' isn't the right word but regardless, he's had a crush on him since grade nine or so and still has yet to make any sort of move towards him asides from these little conversations they have." another gesture, this time with his eyes towards the two still talking on the opposite side of the cafeteria.

"They've been best friends since they were kids but only in the last year or so has Riku slowly distanced himself from Sora. Sure, they're still friends but they don't talk or hang out with each other as nearly as much as they used to. Probably because Riku realized he had feelings for him." Zexion sighed again. "I really wish he would just grow a damn pair and ask him out already. It's starting to become really annoying with how antsy he get's whenever Sora is around..."

Roxas tried to think back to when he and Sora were kids. He tried to remember all of the times they played together and visited each others houses but he couldn't seem to remember anything about Sora mentioning a friend named Riku. Or rather any other friends come to think of it.

' _I guess we really weren't as close as I thought we were back then. Huh.'_

As Roxas was currently lost in his train of thought, he hardly noticed a new presence at the table until an overly chipper voice suddenly spoke out saying, "Zexion! Sorry for not being here this morning man! I totally had a doctors appointment that I forgot about and didn't have any time to grab my phone and shoot you a text before I was rushing out the door!"

The boy gave Zexion a sheepish smile while scratching the back of his sandy blond mohawk? Mullet? Both? Roxas couldn't really determine what type of hairstyle this guy had, it was definitely original though.

Zexion sighed. "It's fine, Demyx." After a pause he added, "oh, right. This is Roxas. He just moved here." Zexion motioned to Roxas with one of his hands while he said this.

The other boy looked to Roxas and smiled. "Hey, how's it going? I'm Demyx!"

Roxas could here Zexion mutter something about that fact being obvious but Roxas just replied with a simple "nice to meet you" before Demyx took a seat beside Zexion.

' _Their personalities are so different from each other_ ', Roxas thought. ' _I wonder how they get along so well._ '

Demyx and Zexion broke into casual conversation while they all took out their lunches and began to eat. Roxas opted out of trying to engage in conversation with them because he really just wanted a few moments alone with his thoughts. And besides, it sounded like the two of them were in the middle of a debate with each other regarding some type of marine species that Roxas had never even heard of.

Was Roxas really making friends this easily? He'd never had this much success with making acquaintances and/or friends at his old school.

Back in Twilight Town, he only had a handful of people that he actually talked to. Hayner, Pence and Olette were the closest thing he had to 'best friends', and even then he struggled to relate to them when it came to his tastes in music and fashion choices.

Most of the student body at Twilight Town High wore preppy-ish clothes and listened to mainstream music, with Roxas and a few others being the exception to listening to rock, post-hardcore and other alternative genres. These handful of students usually opted for wearing typical 'skater' clothes. What could Roxas say? He loved wearing skinny jeans, Converse or Vans, loose tanks, and especially tshirts that had the names of his favourite bands written across the front. Plus, if those said tshirts had been bought at a concert, Roxas loved them even more because of the sentiment behind them. To top off his look, he usually always paired his outfit with a flannel or a plain zippered hoodie.

Riku eventually joined them all at the table once he returned from talking to Sora. Before he could even sit down though, Zexion interjected by saying, "So?"

Riku sighed as he took a seat at the table in one of the chairs next to Roxas, across from Zexion and Demyx.

"We're, uh... Meeting up together to study this week."

"..." Zexion stared at him blankly and blinked. "And?"

"...And that's it", Riku said quietly.

"Oh, for the love of Christ, Riku." Zexion said in an exasperated voice.

"Hey, Zex," Demyx said, placing a reassuring hand on Zexion's shoulder. "It's alright, he'll get the confidence... Eventually."

"Thanks." Riku said sarcastically, putting his head down to rest his chin on his arms that were folded across the table in front of him.

Zexion suddenly looked very alert. Sitting up straight in his chair, he looked around the cafeteria briefly before saying, "hold on a moment. Where the hell is Axel?"

"Fuck if I know." Riku grumbled into his arms. "Haven't seen him all morning."

"Yeah, me neither..." Zexion replied absently.

Just then, a new figure sauntered into the cafeteria. A bright mass of red hair attached to a tall and slender figure, with a jacket flung over one shoulder, was making his way over to where they were sitting, a wicked grin plastered on his mouth.

' _Who in the hell..._ ' Roxas thought.

"Speak of the Devil!" Demyx called out to the red haired boy, standing up from where he sat.

"...And he shall appear!" the red haired boy said, reaching the table and slapping his palm against Demyx's before ending their little handshake-greeting-thing by bumping their fists together.

"Dude," Riku said. "Where have you been?"

"What the hell happened to your face?" Zexion asked shocked. The boy in question, Axel, had two small square white bandages on both of his cheeks, one on each side.

Taking a seat next to Roxas, completely ignoring the small blond's presence, Roxas couldn't help but notice the unique features of the other boy's face. Sharp cheekbones blended into a defined jaw line, and striking green eyes that contrasted his hair were outlined in a fair amount of eyeliner.

' _Most guys can't pull that off..._ ' Roxas thought. ' _But it really does suit him quite nicely._ '

"Uh..." Axel scratched the side of his temple awkwardly with a sheepish grin. "About that..."

"...No," Zexion said after a moment, staring at him with a judging look. "Please tell me you didn't."

"Huh?" Demyx looked at the two confused. "Didn't what? What's going on? Did you get into a fight, Axel?"

Axel visibly swallowed. "Ah... Well, you see..." Axel mumbled quietly.

"He got-" Zexion started to say.

"Oh... Oh! Look at the time!" Axel said nervously, cutting Zexion off while looking at his phone. "I should uh... Go buy something to eat for lunch! Haha... Yep!"

Axel quickly got up from his seat and grabbed Zexion's arm, none too gently, and hauled him out of his seat.

"Axel, what the fu-!" Zexion tried to say.

"Come with me." Axel hissed into Zexion's ear. "Be back in a jiffy!" he called back to the group as he walked away with an angry and sputtering Zexion in tow.

Roxas, along with Demyx and Riku, just stared dumbfound at the two retreating figures who were making their way over to the place where students purchased food.

"... I don't even wanna know." Riku eventually said.

Demyx just shook his head and went back to what was left of his lunch. Roxas and Riku followed suit until Zexion and Axel returned to the table.

"Ahem," Zexion started, sitting back down in his chair. "Axel has so _graciously_ informed me of prior events that took place today and would appreciate it if I 'kept my fucking mouth shut'. Or so he said." Zexion turned his attention back to the remainder of his lunch and lapsed into silence.

"O...kay..." Demyx said a little awkwardly.

Riku just stared in confusion while Roxas didn't even know how to react.

"... You'll all find out soon enough anyway." Zexion mumbled under his breath while Axel sighed loudly, taking a seat.

As Axel picked up the slice of pizza that he had just bought and brought it towards his mouth, he paused.

"Oh, hey," he said, looking down at Roxas. "You're new."

"Uh..." Roxas said shyly. "Yeah."

"He has a name, jackass." Riku interjected.

"Gee," Axel said sarcastically to Riku. "Thanks tips, I haven't exactly gotten that far yet."

Riku slumped in his chair, returning his focus back to his nearly finished lunch.

"The name's Axel." the red haired boy said, returning his gaze to Roxas. "Got it memorized?"

As he said the last part, Riku, Zexion and Demyx could all be seen mouthing "got it memorized" in time with when Axel said it.

"Uh..." Roxas said, giving a bit of a smirk at how the other three mocked Axel. "Yeah. I'm Roxas."

"Roxas..." Axel trailed off for a slight moment. "Cool name." He said, taking a bite of his pizza.

"Yeah, thanks." Roxas said a bit awkwardly.

The P.A. system suddenly crackled to life and the voice coming over the speakers spoke harshly. "Axel DeSantis. Office. Now."

"Awe man," Axel said, annoyance evident in his voice. "barely the first day back and I'm already getting called down?!" Axel sighed before standing up with one quick motion, taking his pizza slice with him in one hand and giving a two finger salute with the other. "Duty calls, 'gents! See you next period."

Roxas froze. He wasn't sure what had caused it. Maybe it was the piercing eye colour, or the way that he carried himself, or the similar way in which he said goodbye to the group of people sitting at the table. But regardless, it suddenly started to bring back too many memories all at once. Roxas could feel the tears starting to well up in his eyes.

' _No_.' he thought. ' _Get a grip, Roxas. Not here. Not in front of these people that you just met._ ' Roxas clenched his teeth in order to stop his brain from thinking back to three months ago.

Unaware of what was going through Roxas' head, Zexion suddenly interjected his thoughts with a loud sigh before saying, "is he ever _not_ a shit disturber around school? Seriously, he needs to stop causing trouble, it's become quite tiresome year after year."

"Axel will be Axel." Demyx said with a small chuckle. Riku just nodded and "hmphed" in agreement.

Roxas excused himself from their lunch table, making an excuse that he needed to use the washroom.

It took Roxas a minute to locate where the washroom was but once he found it, he quickly went inside and made his towards the sinks. Thankful that no one else was in there, he turned on the tap and let the cold water run over his hands before he splashed some on his face.

He took a deep breath and looked in the mirror. Placing his hands on either side of the sink, he looked into the eyes of his own reflection and stared.

"He's gone, Roxas." He mumbled to himself quietly. "Why do you still let him effect you so much when _he's_ the one who left _you_."

' _Isn't that all the more reason to keep obsessing over him? He left you without any sort of reason, he's the reason you feel this way. It's because you still have feelings for him. You can't and won't let it go._ ' His conscious said, laughing at him.

"Ugh." Roxas groaned. "Get it together, Roxas."

He finished up at the sink and turned the tap off, drying his hands on his jeans and making his way back towards the cafeteria.

On his way back, he bumped into Sora who cheerily asked him if he'd come over after to school to catch up with one another and have dinner. Roxas reluctantly agreed, also briefly mentioning that he wouldn't need help getting to his next period and finally made it back to his lunch table where everyone else was packing up and getting ready to go to their next classes.

"Demyx and I are about to head over to the peer tutoring classroom if you'd care to walk with us there." Zexion said politely to Roxas.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Roxas replied. "That'd be great, thanks."

Zexion gave a curt nod in reply while Roxas cleaned up his finished lunch and grabbed his backpack before they headed towards room 138.

"See you guys," Riku said as he turned towards the gym which was near the new wing of the school. "I have Phys. Ed. now so I'll see you later."

Zexion, Demyx and Roxas all gave their quick goodbyes before continuing to walk down the hall.

"So, Roxas," Demyx started. "What type of music do you like?"

"Uhm," Roxas replied. "Mostly rock, punk rock, post-hardcore... Stuff like that... You?"

"Sweet!" Demyx said cheerily, glad that he found something of interest to talk to his new companion about. "I'm pretty eclectic when it comes to music so I'll listen to just about anything if it sounds good."

Demyx scratched the back of his head a bit nervously. "Do you play any instruments?"

"Not really..." Roxas replied. He was really hoping this wouldn't turn into a conversation about whether or not he could sing. "I play some guitar and piano, but only really simple stuff."

"Piano," Zexion said, suddenly interested. "That's a great choice in instruments. I still play quite regularly, mostly classical music. Demyx has been teaching me how to play guitar recently though, I'm thoroughly enjoying it."

They trailed off into silence as they walked down the hallway, making their way to the peer tutoring classroom. The new wing of the school was stark and white. Compared to the rest of the school which was varying degrees of faded blue and beige, the new wing of the school slightly reminded Roxas of a hospital. Roxas didn't particularly like this, he hated hospitals. They always reminded him of the time he fractured his leg when he was younger, trying to learn a new move on his skateboard. He slightly shivered at the thought as they entered room 138.

A few students were already there, paired off in groups of two. The teacher who was there briefly went over the process of how peer tutoring worked and gave him a short single-paged form to fill out before telling him to take a seat with Zexion and Demyx until more students showed up so that Roxas could be assigned a partner.

Only one other student showed up: Axel.

"Ah," the teacher said, looking at the clock on the wall. "DeSantis. How nice of you to finally join us."

The teacher looked around the room for a moment and checked the list of students and peer tutors that had already signed in.

"How about you go and join Mr. Strife over there?" The teacher said with a small smile. "He seems to already be acquainted with Mr. Williams and Mr. Anderson, so I'll assign you to him for now until we make the final decisions. He apparently excelled very well at his last school in math so hopefully you two will be a good match."

Axel gave a curt nod before making his way over to Roxas, Zexion and Demyx.

' _You've gotta be kidding me._ ' Roxas thought, overhearing the entire conversation between Axel and the teacher. Axel walked over and dropped his backpack on the floor, taking a seat next to Roxas. ' _I did_ not _sign up for this._ '

Axel brought the back of his fist up to his mouth and coughed. "Hey." he said awkwardly. "Normally the teacher's just put me with Dem and Z but, uh, they told me they're assigning me to you so, yeah."

"I know." Roxas said bluntly. "I heard."

Zexion looked between the two a few times before snickering. "Good luck, Roxas, you've got your work cut out for you. He's quite a handful."

"Gee, thanks," Axel said. " _Mr. Williams._ "

Zexion wasn't wrong, Axel _was_ a handful. He had the focus of a toddler, always straying off topic and away from the work he was doing. Roxas, more than a few times, had to gently remind Axel to keep working or else he'd never get anything done. And more than once he had to jump in and correct Axel mid-equation.

"No. Dude. _Carry_ the two, not divide it." Roxas said, leaning over Axel's arm and showing him what he was doing wrong. "Like this."

Across the table, Zexion chuckled.

"Shut up, Z." Axel said. "I don't get all of this math shit. I'm way better at chemistry, and we both know it."

"You do realize that most science requires some form of math, right?" Zexion asked, staring at Axel as if he genuinely didn't understand this simple concept.

"...It's totally different." Axel said in a stubborn tone.

"Sure it is." Zexion replied, pursing his lips.

Zexion returned to checking over Demyx's work, circling and correcting any few mistakes that he had made. While Axel had trouble with math, Demyx struggled more with grammar and punctuation. Sure, the sandy haired blond could read and write just fine, but he liked spending the time with Zexion. Plus it was nice to make sure all of his English homework was properly written so that he could get better marks in class.

Although Demyx had never admitted it to Zexion, he really did like him. They'd been friends since the beginning of high school and over the years, had become very close. Unlike Riku and his situation with Sora, Demyx refused to let his feelings come in the way of Zexion's and his friendship. As far as Demyx knew, Zexion had never been in a relationship with anyone and had come to the conclusion that perhaps Zexion had no desire to be with anyone. It didn't matter to him anyway, Demyx was just glad that he could spend time with Zexion on a regular basis. Whether it be watching a movie, teaching each other how to play a different instrument, going to concerts, or their daily debates with one another, Demyx wouldn't miss it for the world.

Their peer tutoring period ended after what seemed like an eternity to Roxas and they all found themselves making their way to their final classes.

' _Finally..._ ' Roxas thought, feeling somewhat drained after the whole ordeal of helping Axel finish his homework. ' _I thought that would never end._ '

Zexion departed them, saying goodbye before he left in the direction of his Philosophy class, while Axel did the same and left to go to his World Religions class. Which left Roxas and Demyx walking down the hall towards the music room, with Demyx leading the way.

"Just a side note for this class, I doubt we'll be doing much this week. We usually just get the whole first week to fill out bullshit theory worksheets and screw around on the instruments until the teacher decides what we'll be focusing on for the semester." Demyx said, shrugging.

They entered the class and took a seat. As said by Demyx, they really didn't end up doing a whole lot in the class asides from theory worksheets and before Roxas knew it, he was making his way towards his locker. Upon arriving there, an anxious looking Sora was impatiently waiting, telling Roxas to hurry up so they could leave.

That was easier said than done. While Roxas had only taken a few minutes to get all of his stuff together, Sora seemed to take a lifetime to finish saying goodbye to all of his friends and classmates. It seemed as if the entire student body had something to say him. It was really starting to aggravate Roxas, that was for sure.

Finally, after twenty minutes, they left the school in the direction of Sora's house.

A/N: Was is good? Horrible? constructive criticism is always welcome!

-Demi


End file.
